Take These Broken Wings
A/N: Hey, hi, hello! This is my first Attack On Titan work and I really hope you enjoy it. I was really intrigued with the mystery of what lies beyond the walls and so, I mused about what could be. Then, this came out of it! Please, reviews are very much appreciated!
1. Present Yourselves
A shining, confident grin beamed towards the double barrel aimed at him. "Bet you 100 gold coins you're about to put that gun down."
"Ha, I'll take that bet," Jean Kirstein spat out.
"At ease, Jean," the Captain called out from behind, his shotgun resting on his shoulder casually. "Well, well. When Erwin told me that he received a letter from you, I was skeptical about it all. But it's really you, isn't it?"
"You have no faith in me, big brother–"
The butt of Levi's shotgun made contact with the young man's stomach, which cut him short of his sentence. The young man bent over, let out one hacking cough and fell onto his knees. Levi then had the collar of the young man's white shirt balled into his fist.
"I thought you were dead. I mourned you, you piece of shit. Don't even think that you can downplay that for a second," he snapped. Levi's eyes were narrowed dangerously before he let go of the young man quite forcibly.
"Right. Apologies, big brother," the young man murmured weakly as he struggled to get up.
"Better be," Levi murmured before turning on his heel, "Come on, we're escorting this brat here back to the cottage."
"Great, the rest of Squad Levi. I wonder if they're going to be as commendable as Jean over here. No harm done, Jean, you're a solid soldier," the young man proclaimed before patting Jean's arm lightly with the back of his hand. Jean's eyes were steely and his jaw was tense, distrust oozing off of him and into the air.
"Who is this joke?" Jean asked, not daring to relax the hold on his double barrel shotgun.
"Oh, did I forget to introduce myself? I'm–"
A scream cut his sentence short once again. It sounded like it belonged to a child, maybe a young adolescent. The young man quickly stiffened, his confident demeanour disappearing immediately. His blue eyes glazed over with an emotionless sheet of ice.
Without saying anything else, the young man bounded in the direction where the scream came from. Levi clicked his tongue in distaste before he began to follow him, instructing Jean to do the same. The young man was fast but loud and hasty. He forged a trail amongst the forest foliage. It wasn't until a bumbling stream could be heard that the young man decided to stop.
There was an adolescent boy that was kept on his knees. He was struggling against the bounds on his wrists. Sasha Braus kept her bow and arrow aimed at the childish preteen, her face contorted into worry. When the boy's eyes landed on the young man, his face brightened to reveal a toothy grin, albeit with a few teeth missing.
"Hey, big brother! Tell her that I mean no harm and that I was sincerely trying to find a beehive because we ran out of honey at home and I want honey lemon tea! Big brother!"
"Really? If that were the case, why would you be this close to the mountains?" the young man asked before putting a hand on his hip.
"Well, you know how the whole thing goes about bears leading you to honey. I saw a bear and decided to follow it and I ended up following it all the way here! Let me tell you how disappointed I was to find that it didn't lead me to honey."
An aggravated sigh came from the young man. "How disappointed were you?"
"Unimaginably so! I spent half a day following a bear and all it led me to was an abnormal amount of blueberries! Blueberries, big brother! I don't want blueberry tea, I want honey lemon tea!" the boy cried as he shook his head back and forth, feigning a temper a tantrum, "Now, I need to find honey before sunset or else big sister will get mad at me again. In order to do that, I need to find a much more promising way to find honey!"
"So, where does the highly unauthorized use of the 3DMG gear come in?"
The young boy stopped thrashing about. His sparkling onyx eyes widened in exaggerated disbelief. "I am offended, big brother! Absolutely offended! Would you rather me follow the bear without a sure-fire way to escape, in case he were to catch on and attack me? The 3DMG not only made for quick tracking and searching but it eased my conscious about leaving the estate alone. The more I thought about it, the more it simply made sense. Now, can someone give the go ahead for my release? I'd really like to continue my search for honey."
"Do you know this little brat? You'd think his tongue would fall off from all that talking," Levi asked with a deadpan expression.
"Yeah. He's a member of my squad. A military trainee named Serpiente Del Oceano," the young man murmured, his voice laced with a bit of embarrassment. His eyes were on the young boy, his thumb resting just on the bottom of his chin.
"In that case, Sasha, you can let him go." Levi's face was as deadpan as ever, though there was something in the tone of his voice. A hint of amusement, maybe?
"Great! You know I'm really excited to meet all of you since you're probably the squad that my big brother talks about all the time. Especially you, Mister Levi. But there's a time and a place for that. Sorry about barging in on your patrol, Miss Sasha," Serpiente exclaimed cheerfully, wiggling his torso for a moment.
"R-Right," the young woman muttered. She then lowered her bow and arrow, moving towards the exuberant boy cautiously. Serpiente's warm and ecstatic grin didn't waver. She quickly untied the ropes, completely wordless, then stepped back from him. Her silence didn't deter the young boy. He bounced up and grinned warmly towards the young woman.
"Thank you, Miss Sasha! I mean, out of all the things that you could have done to take me hostage, I'm glad that you only chose to bind my wrists," Serpiente proclaimed as cheerily as he had before, "Now, I got to find honey! I promise not to come close to the mountains again, especially since that's the treatment that I'll get. Don't worry; I completely understand why you guys are doing patrols in such a way."
He was waving happily as he tried to walk away. There was something hasty in the way he followed the stream. Before a firm hand grabbed the back of his collar, the young child was ready to jump into a sprint. He let out a yelp and struggled against the hold.
"Do you take us as idiots?" Levi asked with a raised eyebrow, his grip on Serpiente's shirt unwavering.
"Well, it highly depends on what you consider an idiot."
"Serpiente–"
"It's not like I was meaning to spy!" Serpiente cried suddenly, shaking his head vigorously, "Zola told me that she'd have my head if I didn't do it and I'd be locked in the basement! I don't want to be locked in the basement! It's cold and damp and stony and dark and the villagers were telling me about how the manor was haunted. Big brother, I didn't want to be Zola's prisoner!"
"Why would you spy on your captain?" Levi asked with his voice still as deadpan as before. However, there was a hint of curiosity and perhaps even amusement laced into his tone.
"There was no evidence suggesting that you, Mister Levi, wouldn't hurt big brother if you didn't trust him. And, given the stories, you make for an intimidating figure. If something were to happen to big brother during this rendezvous, I was supposed to report back to Zola as fast as I could. It's not that she doesn't trust our captain, she doesn't trust you, Mister Levi," Serpiente explained hastily. A nervous chuckle bubbled out of the boy's lips.
Once again, the boy attempted to struggle against Levi's hold. He kicked and thrashed, reaching out for something that wasn't there. However, it was no doubt that Levi was stronger than him.
"Why not send someone more capable? I know you're fast but you're not the fastest. Or the strongest. Or even the most capable at the 3DMG. Why you?" the young man asked with his arms crossed. His lips were pursed in thought.
Serpiente let out another nervous laugh and chirped, "If I were to get caught, Zola said that my youth and enthusiasm would appeal to your better nature. Basically, out of the squad, I'm the most likable."
"Well, he's not wrong," Jean muttered lightheartedly. At the comment, Serpiente beamed brightly, his nervousness ebbing a bit.
"Regardless of if we like you or not, you're a trespasser and you're coming with us until we're done our rendezvous," Levi proclaimed as he began to drag the young boy towards their cottage. Serpiente let out a wail, similar to a distressed puppy.
"You ought to stop that habit, by the way," the young man said to Serpiente. With an audible gulp and a wary smile, the young boy looked towards his captain.
"What do you mean, big brother?"
"When you're hiding something, you pick up your sister's speaking tic. Addressing everyone with honorifics and such," the young man explained, waving his hand dismissively. Serpiente pouted and stopped resisting Levi, allowing the captain to drag him wherever he pleased.
Sasha and Jean walked behind the young man, with Levi and Serpiente leading the group. The young woman still looked incredibly uneasy, but she didn't have her arrow drawn. She leaned in towards Jean with her eyes on the young man's back. "Who are these people?"
"I have no idea. That older guy calls the Captain 'big brother' but he hasn't told us his name yet," Jean muttered underneath his breath, "I have a feeling it's those people."
"Ha, it looks like I forgot to introduce myself again," the young man suddenly exclaimed, his right hand resting at the nape of his neck. It was clear that he was amused as he proclaimed, "I'm Friedrich, but you may know me as John Christopher."
"Have you ever heard of a man named John Christopher?" Levi asked before drinking some of his black tea. His eyes didn't meet any of the others.
"John Christopher? I think I've heard that name flying around before," Jean muttered thoughtfully.
Squad Levi all sat around the table, being called to gather without knowing the reason. Despite being teenagers, their faces were dark and spoke of tragedies and terrors. It wasn't hard to get accustomed to such a bleak atmosphere, though it was always going to be uncomfortable.
"John was a Survey Corps member. He graduated 2nd out of the 99th Training Squad. He was originally from Trost district. At first, he was a friend of a friend. But, by the time of his untimely death, he was one of my closest comrades. He was reported as MIA on his first mission outside the Walls in 845 because they couldn't find a corpse. However, knowing the structure of reports, I was certain he was dead," Levi told the group before letting out a sigh, "That was five years ago. Almost two months ago, we received a messenger hawk, something highly unorthodox. It carried a lengthy letter explaining that there was civilization outside the walls..."
The group tensed. Memories of traitorous comrades and broken promises flooded their mind. It was their only contact with people outside of the wall. It didn't necessarily make for a good impression.
"And not just one community. There's a whole web of villages, towns and nomadic groups outside the walls. There are miners who have metals stronger than ours. There are scholars that do nothing but record the events of what's going on around them. There are hunters that kill Titans religiously and even sailors that live on a large body of water called an 'ocean'... and there are the warriors that we are all too familiar with," Levi explained.
"Sailors? There are people who've seen the ocean?" Armin asked hopefully then paused to fully process everything, "This letter... what was it meant for?"
"People outside the walls want to be inside. The letter was signed by John Christopher. Five years ago, the young soldier was found by villagers on the brink of death. They brought him back to the village to nurse him back to health, and with nothing to go on about outside the walls, Christopher decided to stay in the village. Recent developments in technology allowed him to map out the terrain more effectively than before and he finally was able to find his way back to the walls. Christopher wants to share this technology with the Survey Corps, created by a member of the team he assembled. Not only that, they have the capability to be based outside the walls and can act as part of the Survey Corps."
"They must want something in return," Jean bartered, his arms crossed and his posture rigid.
"They do not require money. The village the team originates from does not run on any type of cash economy. They require functional and updated 3DMG but that was all they requested from us. Christopher was always a loyal figure... I don't see anything beyond his old pledge of service driving him. As for his team, he stated that he trusted them all with his life and they're all willing to give their lives up for humanity."
"Were all the names of his team disclosed in the letter?" Armin asked softly, his caution overriding his curiosity, "What did Commander Erwin decide?"
"He ultimately decided to let them in. He kept them in hiding, allowing them to have civilian papers for the last month. It was just shitty timing, so he couldn't allow anyone to know of his decision. Now that the fire's died down, we can make our decision about the team Erwin's dubbed 'Squad Pax', for the village that they originate from. We've been selected as the team that'll test out this new technology and decide whether it's a worthy investment. As for the names... hell if I know."
Everyone fell silent for a moment, processing all the information that was laid out for them. Peaceful outsiders being led by a former soldier. It was a ludicrous scenario, with little to no chance of actually occurring. Yet, here it was. Staring them straight in the face and daring the teenagers not to believe it.
"I've wanted to see John Christopher for quite some time. There are things I've needed to say to him that I haven't got the chance to. As captain, I accepted the offer. The rendezvous with Christopher will happen here at 1700 hours, during our regular evening patrols," Levi proclaimed definitively, finally taking another sip of his tea, "Kirstein, Braus, you're on those shifts. If anything should happen, report to me immediately."
"Yes, sir," both teenagers responded.
"Alright. All of you, dismissed."
As the teenagers attempted to shuffle into some sort of routine, Levi continued to sit at the table. He stared at his cup, at the slightly warped reflection that the black tea gave off.
"Hey, big brother, you hold your cup differently. Why is that?"
There was a lot he had to say to the young man. First off, he had to mouth off to him that his last words to him in 845 were "look, technically, you've only been in the Survey Corps for a year so that's no reason to go on about the whole 'I'm your senior' bit; I'll be fine, big brother".
"Did I say it was weird? No! I only said it was different. Sheesh, you're as cynical as an old man."
Secondly, Levi had to tell him that he missed him.